Say What? It's a biblical term OK. Something like, tuck in your robe because you will need to be running really fast.
What this has to do with is the budget mess most states are in these days. Which is in some cases are not disasters, but catastrophes in the making. What pulled the bacon out of the fire in 2009 was the federal stimulus funding. The current projection is that there will be no such funding package for states--not in the size and methods of the past anyway. All of this is explained at Sorry, No More Bananas
Things are projected to go from bad to worse. There are always these "one time savings" schemes that are used. The one I personally remember came from the Nixon era. They switched military pay from being the last day of the month to the first day of the month. Saving an entire month's worth of military salary for one fiscal year (September). The trouble is the rabbit has already been pulled out of the hat in 2009, so what to do in 2010?
Cuts baby, budget cuts and big ones at that. Who is vulnerable? Everyone, even cops and firefirghers felt the heat in 2009, and the oven is being turned up to 450 degrees in 2010.
The danger for emergency managers is how their value is perceived by elected officials. No disasters in recent memory? Why not cut the DEM/OEM budget or--even do away with the function all together. Sound preposterous, don't think it isn't in the mind of some legislators.
I'll give you one example. A local emergency management director told me that a state legislature visited his facility and made the comment, "If we have this here, why do we even need the State Emergency Management function? We should be able to do away with it." Scary talk by an uninformed individual--but then they make the budget decisions.
The impacts of these budget cuts are taking their toll. In the same edition of Governing Magazine there was an article on Government and the Stress Mess It highlighted the issues of fewer people doing more in government due to cut backs in staffing.
I'd like to address the furlough issue. If you are going to force people to take days off, then they should all be the same days and governments should close their doors during those furlough days. When you keep the doors open, then you are stretching the existing workforce over more work days, and the average citizen sees no impact other than poorer service which makes them appreciate government even less.
The sum of what I'm writing about above is this:
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What this has to do with is the budget mess most states are in these days. Which is in some cases are not disasters, but catastrophes in the making. What pulled the bacon out of the fire in 2009 was the federal stimulus funding. The current projection is that there will be no such funding package for states--not in the size and methods of the past anyway. All of this is explained at Sorry, No More Bananas
Things are projected to go from bad to worse. There are always these "one time savings" schemes that are used. The one I personally remember came from the Nixon era. They switched military pay from being the last day of the month to the first day of the month. Saving an entire month's worth of military salary for one fiscal year (September). The trouble is the rabbit has already been pulled out of the hat in 2009, so what to do in 2010?
Cuts baby, budget cuts and big ones at that. Who is vulnerable? Everyone, even cops and firefirghers felt the heat in 2009, and the oven is being turned up to 450 degrees in 2010.
The danger for emergency managers is how their value is perceived by elected officials. No disasters in recent memory? Why not cut the DEM/OEM budget or--even do away with the function all together. Sound preposterous, don't think it isn't in the mind of some legislators.
I'll give you one example. A local emergency management director told me that a state legislature visited his facility and made the comment, "If we have this here, why do we even need the State Emergency Management function? We should be able to do away with it." Scary talk by an uninformed individual--but then they make the budget decisions.
The impacts of these budget cuts are taking their toll. In the same edition of Governing Magazine there was an article on Government and the Stress Mess It highlighted the issues of fewer people doing more in government due to cut backs in staffing.
I'd like to address the furlough issue. If you are going to force people to take days off, then they should all be the same days and governments should close their doors during those furlough days. When you keep the doors open, then you are stretching the existing workforce over more work days, and the average citizen sees no impact other than poorer service which makes them appreciate government even less.
The sum of what I'm writing about above is this:
- The cuts are not done
- If you have dedicated funds like 911, expect them to be raided--again
- Be prepared to defend what you have left
- Realize that your staff are under intense pressure wondering how to get their work done and if they will be the next ones to leave.
- Don't cut training--we need full emergency management programs. I made this mistake once and it is hard to build a program back up, and no one cares that it is gone.
